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How Did Waggoner View Salvation?-3
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September 19-How Did waggoner View Salvation?-3

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If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Cor. 5:17.

New "creature" (KJV) or new "creation" (RSV) in Christ is a powerful teaching. It runs throughout the New Testament, but finds special expression in the writings of Paul.

Waggoner picked up on that theme, noting that at the very point that persons are justified they are also born again as new beings and adopted into the family of God.

In Waggoner's words, "the difference between a righteous man and a sinner is much more than a mere difference of belief. It is more than a mere arbitrary reckoning on the part of God. It is a real difference....God never declares a person righteous simply because he makes an acknowledgment of the truth. There is an actual, literal change from a state of sin to righteousness, which justifies God in making the declaration." To put it simply, the justified person will live differently than a sinner, because God has made him or her into a new creature at the time of justification.

For Waggoner, justification, new birth, and adoption were the beginning of the Christian walk. Opposing the holiness teachers who held to a form of sanctification "without any change of habit on the part of the individual," he viewed "holiness" without life-changing obedience to the law to be a "delusion."

The saved person, according to Waggoner, will live the life of God's law. He wrote, that "a person can no more love God and fail to manifest it by deeds, than he can live without breathing." Victory over sin comes from the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit in a Christian's life. Only those who gain victory over sin, he held, will be in the eternal kingdom.

Waggoner, as we can see, was not against the law and obedience. But he was dead set against the law and obedience being at the center of one's experience. No! That place was for Christ and His righteousness alone.

But within the realm of Christ's righteousness the newborn person will of necessity desire to walk with God and keep His law.

The order is crucial. First comes salvation. Then comes obedience. Put it backwards and you have legalism.

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The word of God is to be our study. We are to educate our children in the truths found therein. It is an inexhaustible treasure(COL 109).
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